Microsoft, not bloggers, are responsible for lack of clarity around Windows 7 RTM

This one is painful for me, because we all want to believe that the group at Microsoft currently responsible for Windows is righting all the wrongs. But the truth is, they're making the same communication mistakes that the company made when Vista was coming. That is, while Microsoft is preaching "clarity" in their OS, they've been anything but clear in communicating what's happening. In fact, they've actively and sometimes even purposefully muddied the waters.

The most obvious example of this, sadly, is Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc. Brandon's a good guy, a really good guy, but his last couple of posts on the official Windows Blog have been painful. I take particular offense at yesterday's post, innocuously (as ever) titled, Update on Windows 7 RTM. You would expect such a post to simply explain what's going on with the Windows 7 RTM, spell out a rough schedule, and be done with it. The whole thing could be wrapped up in about three sentences. That's not what we get.

Instead, Brandon lashes out at the "rumors surrounding RTM," repeating the Steven Sinofksy claim that ...

"RTM isn't a single point in time."

Um, what? Releasing a product to manufacturing is very much a single point in time. If it's not, you're not doing it right. Life isn't a giant flowchart for crying out loud.

Beware of what you download. There are many bogus copies of Windows 7 floating around the Internet. More often than not, they contain a rather nice malware payload. And don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. When Windows 7 hits RTM, it will be announced here. Until that happens, any builds you are likely to see on the web are either not the final bits or are laced with malicious code.

Wow.

So how will you announce RTM if it's not a single point in time?

And how is it, exactly, that we should trust what you write if, a) we can't trust everything on the Internet, and, b) you get so much wrong?

Recall that the technical press who attended the Windows 7 Reviewers Workshop in October was promised, explicitly by Microsoft, regular interim Windows 7 builds. We got exactly zero of those builds. So, given the veil of secrecy, we've been forced to download "bogus copies of Windows 7" to see how things have progressed over time.

Why did we "have" to do this? Some of us had books to complete, thank you very much. Some are press who simply believe in the whole Fourth Estate thing. I fall into both categories--ultimately, my job is to communicate what Microsoft is doing, after all--and I have personally downloaded every single leaked build that's popped up. I have also, in fact, had access to several builds that were never leaked widely. I have never, ever--not once--gotten malware as part of any of these downloads. Not once. I'm not saying its not possible. I'm just saying it never happened. Unlike Brandon, I downloaded the builds. Because I had to. Who should you trust on this?

---

Regarding RTM, I have been told privately on more than one occasion that we can expect a few weeks of dicking around (not the official term, but, I think, more accurate) while Microsoft takes build 7600 and basically revs it based on last-minute fixes. This happens with each Windows release, of course. Not coincidentally, Tom Warren at Neowin has a nice post about this exact thing happening right now.

In recent days build 7600 has leaked with the build tag 7.7600.16384.090710-1945. The 16384 part is significant as it's the "minor part" which indicates it is a build Microsoft may be ready to release. If a minor change is made the build becomes 16385, 16386 etc.

Update: Just got word from several sources that 7600.16385.090713-1255 has been compiled but it's not yet clear if this is just the Windows 7 WDK only or client too.

But the best part of Tom's post, the point of it really, is that LeBlanc isn't alone in misleading the public. Yesterday, during the WPC keynote, Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte neatly tap-danced around when Microsoft would RTM Windows 7. In fact, it was disappointing because he was so vague. Here's what he said about RTM, and you can see it for yourself at 56:41 in the video (again, emphasis mine):

It is such an exciting time. This month we will release Windows 7 to manufacturing, and we write that next chapter, we go after that opportunity.

There's just one problem. The official transcript of the speech, clearly written off the script ahead of time (or just a simple mistake, I guess; either way, it's wrong), reads as follows:

It is such an exciting time. This morning we will release Windows 7 to manufacturing, and we write that next chapter, we go after that opportunity.

So again, I have to ask? Why are you, Microsoft, railing against bloggers when you don't even get it right?

And if RTM isn't a single point in time, why was senior vice president Bill Veghte originally going to announce it yesterday?

Microsoft, don't be petty enough to even respond to this. Do be mature enough to start communicating this stuff effectively.

---

You know what? I can't let this sit. There is so much more wrong here. I have so many questions.

Why doesn't Ultimate get a temporary low-cost Upgrade? You screwed those customers, plain and simple. Now you're screwing them again.

If Windows 7 is a single "global launch," then why is it being dribbled out in stages to MSDN/TechNet, SA customers, consumers, and so on? It's more of a staggered launch than a single point in time (cough).

Why don't you support in-place upgrades from your single biggest customer group (XP users)? You could upgrade from XP to Vista. Why are you punishing the biggest group of Windows users by making the Windows 7 "upgrade" more difficult for them? Don't you care about your customers? You used to: You supposedly delayed Windows 98 to support in-place upgrades from Windows 3.1 over a decade ago. Remember that?

Why do certain locales not get special promotional pricing? Australia?

Why is Windows 7 so freaking expensive in some parts of the world, especially Europe? And don't say VAT. That's not it.

Promotional copies of Windows 7 are sold out? How can you "sell out" of a product that hasn't been manufactured yet? Sorry, I'm calling BS on that one.

On and on it goes. There are a hundred of these, I bet. All valid questions, I think.

But heck, don't read everything you believe on the Internet. Or something. :)

Discuss this Article 114

Well, they'll said they'll annouce it when it's RTMed, why is the blogger community getting hyper? In other news, Word plays catchup with Pages as well like PowerPoint plays catchup with Keynote. Did you check out the awesome typography features of Word 2010?

Why is this such a big deal? MS provides far more transparency than anyone else: we had a public beta, we had a public RC. Who else does that?
I really don't care if RTM is announced this week or next week, or some time in June.
Every company hedges its bets with concervative dates whenever they can, and sometimes engineers vs marketing have different ways of communicating the "doneness" of something.
Don't sweat the small things.

"Promotional copies of Windows 7 are sold out? How can you "sell out" of a product that hasn't been manufactured yet? Sorry, I'm calling BS on that one."
How is it possible to sell out a product that doesn't even require a physical media and can simply be downloaded?
I totally agree with you about the problems upgrading from XP. I have many clients ready to switch to 7 from XP but not if it requires a system wipe and total re-install of all their software.
And don't get me started about the Ultimate pricing thing.
I'm really looking forward to the RTM being made available on Technet, but so disappointed in the way MS is just unable to do things well that should be so simple to do properly.

Regarding Pages, I assume that was meant to be funny. :) Page is pathetic.
That said, Microsoft is clearly taking aim at Keynote with PowerPoint 2010. And that has absolutely nothing to do with this post, so let's move on, shall we?

And for whatever its worth, communicating the completion of the next version of your most important product is not "a small thing." It's pretty much everything at this point in the game. Microsoft has badly bungled the communication of what's going on here, and it's confusing customers. This is a big deal.

Personally, I could really care less on these build numbers. Personally I find it very juvenile. Personally I find it beyond comprehension why anyone would download "leaked" builds from torrent sites. If you do this tells me 100% you're not a professional
This will go RTM when they have it ready. Then the corporate world will get its hands on it, test it, build images and test applications. Till then, this is all b.s.
You all complain if Microsoft pushes out poor quality software. You all complain when Microsoft doesn't give a specific date because they want to test first.
So which is it?
This will be released to the public in the fall on schedule. The corporate world, SA Partners will get their hands on it, MSDN partners, ISVS will get their hands on it. Go work 25 years in the corporate world were deal with ISO, ITIL, HIPAA, various other vendor guidelines. Work in an environment were millions of dollars of revenue are on the line. Then go talk to your mananger about weekly builds and he'll walk you off the property. Then come back to me and tell me how important weekly build numbers are. Personally I could care less what some Russian blogger is posting about leaked weekly build numbers. Are you being serious about even paying attention to this person? Come on! Get in the real world!
I just think you're missing the bigger picture here with what Microsoft has to deal with.

@techman.merb
I guess it is only placed on a limited number of server hard drives, and when they wear out, there will be no more....
Sort like when Disney puts out Cinderella on DVD for a limited time only.....

ISwallow : "iWork is pleasure to use and is very elegant compared to Office. It must be frustrating to see Apple constantly beat MS even on its first try."
Lolololo... The most popular Office suit on Mac is Microsoft Office so... Loololoo... Have fun with iWork but nobody use it ... Lololol
It is like if you tell that there is always less user of good product than the number of user of bad products... Dop!! please stop Intellectual Masturbation and ground you feet on earth... The best and the most popular Office suit is Microsoft Office... Even on Mac... Sorry ISwallow...
You can continue have this kind of statement and hope this will do it real ... But this will not happen!
Les usagers MAC sont toujours aussi divertissant lollololo

It's nice to see Paul get his righteous indignation on, especially when he's right. I especially liked these two:
"Why don't you support in-place upgrades from your single biggest customer group (XP users)? You could upgrade from XP to Vista. Why are you punishing the biggest group of Windows users by making the Windows 7 "upgrade" more difficult for them?"
"Promotional copies of Windows 7 are sold out? How can you "sell out" of a product that hasn't been manufactured yet? Sorry, I'm calling BS on that one."
No kidding.
For a company that does so much so well, it's amazing how Microsoft can screw the pooch in the ways Paul is describing. Their bureaucracy must rival that of Washington DC. Paul really put his reputation and credibility on the line for this post (and without a hidden agenda—I really believe it's because he wants Microsoft to do a better job), and good for him. Bravo, Mr. Thurrott.

Damballa managed to grab control over the server that’s contacted by the pirated Windows 7 versions — codecs.systes.net — which is how it knows how many new, compromised installations are requesting the malware. As of Monday afternoon, the company had tracked 3,452 compromised systems hitting the site, with a peak of more than 550 new infections per hour on Sunday.
There is evidence that the pirated packages of Windows 7 were released on torrent sites on April 24 and was live for at least 16 days before Damballa killed the command-and-control. That puts estimates at about 27,000 installs, eWEEK reports.
As for the rest of the post, what Delmont said.

Great post about the differences between Office and iWork, Paul. What? This post wasn't about a productivity suite? Well, going by the comments...
Anyway...
Great post. My favorite thing about this whole thing is that "sell out" of software that hasn't been pressed. How can something that isn't get physical -- bured onto a DVD -- be sold out? Shouldn't the number of purchases dictate the number of copies made? Obviously Microsoft wanted to sell a number of copies at a reduced price and then charge people more money.
Now I know people like to call Microsoft M$, Micro$osft because it's the only corporation in the world that makes money by selling its software. Unlike, say Apple. But this kind of thing just fuels those people.
LaBlanc does have a point those about downloading unofficial version of the RC but it's not the bloggers and enthusiasts fault, it's MS's fault for but being as transparent about the state of the RC as it said it would be.
As a Windows user/fan, I like coming to sites like yours, and Neowin, Long Zheng's, Eb Bott's, Mary Joe Foley's, hell, even Ina Fried's with her snarky posts about MS/Windows, so it would be nice for Microsoft to be more open about Win7. Microsoft is missing a good opportunity to get some free press and word of mouth by going back on its word and not being as open about the state of Windows 7.

On schedules: I'm not sure what more you want from them - they've said they're aiming for 2H Jul '09. We've been given dates for SA customers (Sept 1) and GA (Oct 22). MSDN members get access to it "a few weeks" after RTM. Windows 7 is in escrow, so what other steps are there but RTM?
On "RTM isn’t a single point in time": I believe he's referring to the fever over "OMG 7600 it's RTM time!z" - that is, the assumption that since the final build has been built, then it has "RTM'd" (in other words, sent to manufacturers already). He's saying that it takes time between build and "RTM" (e.g. l10n, pressing, shipping arrangements, ect), thus the "process" is not RTM itself, but the road to RTM. Similarily, when someone says "shipping takes time", they don't mean the actual shipping per se, but the process of ironing out bugs so the software can ship.
I have to agree about the raw deal wrt Windows 7 testers, though. I understand they didn't want to repeat the whole CTP leaking thing (both info and builds), but just two builds (and the same ones the public got) is rediculous.

Paul, and anyone else who thinks RTM is important...
Why?
Seriously. Why? The release dates are set. Everything that deals with you is set. Unless you are on the Windows team, why on earth would you care about daily builds?
Paul
You say "communicating the completion of the next version of your most important product is not "a small thing." It's pretty much everything at this point in the game."
No. When it will ship is pretty much everything.
What internal processes are left to be done (and that is what RTM really does mean) is really so "Inside Baseball" that NOBODY cares except for dueling bloggers trying to break the build number for some wierd ego fest.
Seriously. I'm waiting for anybody (not on the Windows team) to provide ANY reason for caring.

Name one piece of software that apple have written that's any good!
quicktime = POS and that's being nice.
itunes = POS no one would use it if they weren't forced.
safari = POS and that's being nice.
FCP, I've never used it, but if it's so damn good, why aren't they porting it to the Windows platform? Besides, did they (apple) actually write this?
iswallow says it all, like many of the apple fanatic fringe, swallowing is a prerequisite.
I agree with Paul on this, I'm dumbfounded how MS can make the same mistakes time after time. Yes it's true, they're more transparent than most other companies, (apple are the least transparent) but their communication needs to be both transparent and accurate, and it needs to be consistent.
I also agree, that some effort and time should have been given to developing a direct upgrade path from XP. Adding more hurdles to the upgrade path for existing customers doesn't help Microsoft's cause. That said, an estimated 40-42% Windows 7 adoption rate in the first year (300% higher than XP) is nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps they know their business more than me, a sofa quarterback!

Mike, I agree. This is such a waste of time. Meanwhile, people in Africa are dying of AIDS, indigenous children in Australia are being sexually assaulted and Government Motors in the United States has just emerged from a whirlwind bankruptcy.
No-one cares if Microsoft was supposed to release Windows 7 RTM this morning or next week.

Mike, We purchased Software Assurance with a stock of Vista machines almost two years ago. In fact, the SA expires August 25th or so.
I'm not sure how SA works since I am new to it, but if my benefits extend to RTM, then RTM is quite important to me, because that is when I can upgrade my Vista licenses to 7. Now, rather or not RTM is the upgrade time for SA I am not sure.

Obviously, the "iSwallow" thing is unacceptable. See you in a few days. Comparing iWork to Office is silly and, in this case, off-topic.
Debating whether RTM is important or not is ... well debatable. I think it is. Mike G. doesn't. Whatever. It's at least on-topic. Go nuts.

I must say that I find this whole post really strange. I usually love reading the blog. Paul's insight is usually on target, and I mostly agree with even some of the more off-the-wall commentary.
It has been reported in nooks and crannies for a while now that MS was trying for an RTM that would coincide with an announcement this week. It was clearly written into a speech that was edited at the last minute and wasn't properly updated before being distributed. So they targeted something, for whatever reason didn't make the date, and things happened in such a fashion that a small piece of incorrect information leaked.
Though I don't believe this is "lemons", it is pretty clear that Paul does, and I'm kind of surprised that he can't take lemons and make lemonade. This whole piece about RTM being a 'date' and not a 'period'. Well ... it's both ... or can be thought of in that way. There's the selection of a build as a candidate for RTM (a point in time), extensive testing and verification (a period of time) and the announcement that we have a verified RTM build (a point in time). And if things go wrong in there, we tend to reboot the clock and start over. Which certainly may (or may not) explain some of the timing issues we are seeing right now. In any event, I find it fascinating that we are taking the low road here rather than the high one. Rather than educate people about what could be going on behind the scenes we choose to make a big fuss about the fact that a speech got changed and the press received copies that were slightly incorrect.
Nearly the entire post is a giant pressure release. The whooshing noise is hurting my ears.

"communicating the completion of the next version of your most important product is not "a small thing." "
According to you, Paul, Windows 7 is just a fine-tuning of Windows Vista.
So which is it?
Honestly, Mike is right about GA. You either get it during GA, or you get it later. Businesses aren't keen on deploying it early - just getting their hands on it early to start testing. Anything prior to that is still not set in stone.
I'm interested in getting it early so that I can deploy systems on the date of GA, but distributors have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA when they're going to get System Builder copies, so it's awash. If I can get it from the Action Pack download site early, great! If not, oh well. Vista is stable and quick on all of the systems we use here, and I don't have a lot of time to think about deployment on internal business machines here until it's available on the Action Pack website.
If anything, I'm more interested in hearing about how Microsoft is going to update Windows Essential Server Solutions to include Server 2008 R2 so that SMB's can use BranchCache and DirectAccess. Nothing has been said about that yet, but I expect it's probably a year off.

What I meant was "in the typography department". Not in terms of all features. Word never did typography until now, while OS X and Pages (still) are much more capable than Word at typography and page layout. Give your brain a workout before calling me madman or insane.

"Why don't you support in-place upgrades from your single biggest customer group (XP users)? You could upgrade from XP to Vista. Why are you punishing the biggest group of Windows users by making the Windows 7 "upgrade" more difficult for them?"
"Promotional copies of Windows 7 are sold out? How can you "sell out" of a product that hasn't been manufactured yet? Sorry, I'm calling BS on that one."
I predicted this "sell out" a few threads back with essentially the same comment. It is BS; the "limited availability" of Windows 7 is a lame marketing ploy, which would be funny if the bait and switch was so pathetically transparent.
I suppose I should be pleased that Microsoft has made it hard for XP users to switch to Windows 7.....so much the better for switching to Leopard or Snow Leopard. Why, you can switch to SL and still run XP in Fusion or Parallels. Thank you Microsoft for helping Apple! (BTW, both Fusion and Parallels will import your existing XP installation over a network connection. So that migration is, incredibly, easier than the move from XP to Win7.)

@Mike G
RTM is very important to me. I have many clients thinking of upgrading and I would like to have the final code in my hands asap so that I can test it out with my clients' applications to sort out any problems before the product is available for installation.
Every week that goes by is lost testing time for me, especially in the quiet summer months when doing this testing is preferable to trying to find time to do it when business starts to pick up in the fall. If I had a firm date for RTM availability, I could plan out my testing in advance instead of having to fit it into my regular schedule which will be quite busy once Sept comes around.
I'm aware that I can and have been doing tests with the RC but as we all know, some things can change drastically between the RC and RTM.
So yes...it is important to some of us.

@pthurrott
Calm down, big breath, even bigger ..yup .. now have a cup of java, pardon the painful pun .. Windows 7 will RTM when it RTMs ..
.. Windows 7 will RTM when it RTMs
.. Windows 7 will RTM when it RTMs
.. Windows 7 will RTM when it RTMs ..
..it's all good, don't worry .. they'll probably get you a copy early anyway ..

The exact time of RTM is hyped at the moment, this is certainly not due to Microsoft. They have been open as much as they need to be. Yes they will call RTM somewhere this month, that's all we really need to know, that also includes the press. After RTM you will get your hands on an actual copy (be it through MSDN or Technet or other means) and they you will have still enough time to write a book, as the release date is october 22, which is still over 90 days away.
And all those Russian Wzor's and Chines uploaders, are fuelling the hype. I guess Microsoft might think it is a great thing, and I guess they might be right. When Microsoft finishes that process, they will tell us.
They probably wanted to do that yesterday, but apparently something came up, tough luck.
The in place upgrade is not a big deal, in fact, I believe that it would be foolish to do an in place upgrade from XP to Windows 7, and take with you the bagage of the OS that has been installed X years. Especialy since XP to Windows 7 is a major deal, much more technical complex then for insance from Windows 2000 to Windows XP.

Well... Several people have listed why they think RTM is important to them but they've been "It's important to me when Windows 7 is available in the x channel" and that's a totally different thing. And those channel dates have been pretty much all announced by now.
The one remaining reason was that people who write books about the OS like Paul would care but reality is that what people writing OS books (And I've done that so I do have some insight) care about is when the product is feature locked. Whether that visually unchanging and feature complete version has been sent out to the various distribution systems really does not matter. At this point nothing changes but version numbers and any last minute critical bug fixes.
Again, no reason to care about RTM or not.

Paul,
Bravo. Agreed with every single word.
@mikegalos
"Paul, and anyone else who thinks RTM is important...
Why?"
Because changes to Windows is a big deal to the potential 1.2 BILLION customers who use Windows and might possible upgrade. There are plenty of unanswered questions and as Paul spelled out, there is plenty for potential customers to know. So monitoring builds is important, not for the "Joe Users' out there, but for the guys like myself dealing with people upgrading.
"Seriously. Why? The release dates are set. Everything that deals with you is set. Unless you are on the Windows team, why on earth would you care about daily builds?"
Because perhaps those companies oh such as nVidia, ATI, Creative, Logitech, HP, Dell, Viewsonic, Lenovo, Acer, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, Epson, and good portion of the PC industry would like to test their drivers on completed RTM code. The faster they can get certifed drivers on actual code instead of pre-release code, the better it bodes for users. Any changes in the code is the difference between drivers or software working and drivers or software not working. I thought to someone who worked for Microsoft, that might be obvious.
"Paul
You say "communicating the completion of the next version of your most important product is not "a small thing." It's pretty much everything at this point in the game."
No. When it will ship is pretty much everything."
And meanwhile, Microsoft allowing the tech media, bloggers, and other people to fill in the sounds of Microsoft's silence. Its the same silence that helped Apple with the Mac vs PC commericals that swayed public opinion. Instead of being proactive in providing the answers that obviously they should have that the products is mere weeks away from finishing, we've got Paul Thurrott, Mary Jo Foley, Ed Bott, and many others doing the best they can. Can you really be so hard on them for wanting the answers? Is Microsoft that busy they can't have Steven Sinofsky or some other member of the Windows 7 Team fill out a simple F.A.Q. that might take him at most an hour?
What internal processes are left to be done (and that is what RTM really does mean) is really so "Inside Baseball" that NOBODY cares except for dueling bloggers trying to break the build number for some wierd ego fest.
I think anyone writing a book might want to be sure. Or perhaps security vendors or experts who are identifying bogus versions loaded with malware. Or perhaps those who might want to record chronologically what each version and changes might be.
Seriously. I'm waiting for anybody (not on the Windows team) to provide ANY reason for caring.
I think I've provided enough answers and so did Paul too. Instead of ponies, perhaps you should use your connections at Microsoft to (cough) Pony up the answers?

@sjaak327
"The in place upgrade is not a big deal, in fact, I believe that it would be foolish to do an in place upgrade from XP to Windows 7, and take with you the bagage of the OS that has been installed X years"
Exactly!
By forcing a clean install and a re-do of all the apps etc. a heck of a lot of junk, viruses and malware will hit the bit bucket of history for good. Smart move Microsoft.

" Because perhaps those companies oh such as nVidia, ATI, Creative, Logitech, HP, Dell, Viewsonic, Lenovo, Acer, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, Epson, and good portion of the PC industry would like to test their drivers on completed RTM code. The faster they can get certifed drivers on actual code instead of pre-release code, the better it bodes for users. "
Fully agreed, however I think it would be much worse if Microsoft would finalize their RTM code without proper internal testing. The fact that they seemed to have planned to announce RTM yesterday, might indicate that they have found a problem in the release, now I'm sure all the companies you list would be pleased if Microsoft took their time, one or two weeks delay is no big deal. Latest end of the month, they got RTM.

"so much the better for switching to ... Snow Leopard"
Unless you have a PowerPC...
And Paul, you know better. Supporting a 8 year old OS and expecting to do an in-place upgrade is not exactly a trivial or recommended process. The changes between the two are quite large, and heck, I've had enough troubles even installing SP3 on some XP machines, let alone a full on upgrade. In this case, while it would be great for them to allow this type of upgrade, it really is the best thing to do. And as Saucy just spoke, it gets rid of the years of gunk that we all know XP generates.
As to the rest of the rant, I think you have some valid beefs. They have been very dodgy about this, but it may be because they aren't ready yet. I'm sure they don't want to declare a RTM build and later find out that it really wasn't final.

Subzero
No. You haven't provided even a single reason why you care about RTM. You've provided some about whether the OS is feature complete (and that milestone got passed LONG ago)
Do you really care whether there are 1 remaining or 3 remaining bugs that are going through the test pass to make sure they're fixed? I doubt it. You might care that they be fixed before you get a copy but not how many there are in a specific build on a specific day.
Do you really care whether build 123456 is RTM or 123458 or 123454? The one that does ship is the one you'll get and not the others so who cares about builds you'll never see.
Do you really care whether your OEM gets 2 days more or 3 days less in their build test from the last drop they did? Do you even know what their build process is? Do you know if they have any outstanding driver bugs? How about what their deadline is for updated drivers from their suppliers? Don't know that? Then why do you care about how many days they may have if you don't even know what they need?
Seriously. NOBODY here has shown ANY reason why they care about internal build process.
Including Paul.

More and more as time goes by and MS makes announcements and or non announcments I am glad I made the switch to Mac. It is facinating to watch MS take what appears to be a fine product and find ways to screw things up. Even the last Windows Weekly podcast sounded more like Macbreak Weekly.

The reason RTM is important is because it finishes off another major developement cycle. The testers, developers and everyone are concerned that MS will put the best build out there for RTM because it will be the first impression users get of Windows 7.
I can kinda relate to what Steven Sinofsky said in that RTM is a point in time, Windows 7 will never stop being developed in the near future. There will be people always working on it and I think that was the message he was trying to convey.

meason wrote: "...it would be nice to know they have locked it down and it's ready to ship."
Yep. I've been following 7 since pre-beta, beta, rc. I just want to know the damn thing is locked and ready to ship. I'm not waiting breathlessly for the news, but, hell, I just want to know. Nothing wrong with wanting to know.

OT, but since you asked:
"FCP, I've never used it, but if it's so damn good, why aren't they porting it to the Windows platform? Besides, did they (apple) actually write this?"
Simple answer: FCP drives the sales of Apple hardware.
Apple bought what became FCP from Macromedia, just as they bought Shake, and other components of the FCP suite from other companies. They've since updated and rewritten those programs (and, incidentally, dropped the price, in some cases by several thousands of dollars).
Not that it makes any difference. Microsoft Word was originally a Mac-only program, and the Mac-only PowerPoint was bought by Microsoft from a company called Forethought (I still have the original Forethought PowerPoint floppies in a drawer somewhere).

Dipsh!t,
(and I enjoying writing that ;) )
""so much the better for switching to ... Snow Leopard"
Unless you have a PowerPC..."
Since I said -switching- the reference was clearly to Windows users, not people who already have a Mac.
I'm pleased that Microsoft is "sold out" of Windows 7 upgrades, as hilarious as that is, just as Paul pointed out. I'm also pleased that they'll make the XP>Win7 transition harder.
There's are another nice Apple commercial in those two things and I hope they take advantage of the opportunity.

Mike: "Seriously. NOBODY here has shown ANY reason why they care about internal build process.
Including Paul."
While I cannot speak for Paul, as a "news blogger" it is important that he reports the news that his readers or potential readers want, regardless of their reasons for wanting the news. That's reason enough for Paul to care. People want it reported. And if they don't read it here, they'll read it somewhere else and Paul will loose out on site visitors.
Thank you, Paul, for caring about all of this stuff, even if I or any other posters here don't.

"as Paul pointed out. I'm also pleased that they'll make the XP>Win7 transition harder.
There's are another nice Apple commercial in those two things and I hope they take advantage of the opportunity.
"
Maybe the first, the second, no chance in hell, if there is one company that has shown that they don't care about backwards compatibility it's apple,
I really want to run Snow Leopard on my 4 year old G5, but instead of having to do a clean install (the horror !) I need to buy a new machine...
You must be joking.

Lotsa
Microsoft Word was originally an MS-DOS program that was on the market in 1983 before there even was a Macintosh.
Word was based on Charles Simonyi and Butler Lampson's work on the Bravo word processor at Xerox PARC in the mid 1970s. You know, back before Wozniac started making motherboards for the Homebrew Computer Club and long before Jobs decided he was going to dedicate his live to being an arbiter of fashion.

@chuckb84
So you actually think that because people may have to pay an extra 50 bucks or so to buy 7, they will change their mind and decide to drop about $1500 on a MAc instead? Spend $1500 to save $50? Yeah, that makes sense. Thought processes like that explain why you are a Mac fan.

de Silentio
"While I cannot speak for Paul, as a "news blogger" it is important that he reports the news that his readers or potential readers want, regardless of their reasons for wanting the news. "
And that's certainly reason enough for Paul to mention one day something like, "Microsoft announced that Windows 7 hit the RTM milestone today". And I fully expect that.
What isn't rational is the long diatribe on how awful and potentially disasterous it is that Microsoft isn't giving daily if not hourly briefings about the internal milestones. That's just wierdness.

>>According to you, Paul, Windows 7 is just a fine-tuning of Windows Vista.<<
No, he's said that it's worthy of it's own name and branding.
Why is everyone else obsessed with what Apple does? It started with the first post.
Paul, nice rant. Informative too. Thats one of the ways a blog is supposed to be different from mainstream journalism. And keep launching the trolls into outer space, please.
Subzero, nice post at 11:54 AM .

"Any changes in the code is the difference between drivers or software working and drivers or software not working."
It's not that cut and dry actually.
When Microsoft determines which version of the WDK is "complete" (they continually update it), the code for that version will determine driver certifiability. THAT's what OEM's are looking for. Hardware manufacturers can get WHQL driver certification on pre-release operating systems.

Mike, other than the debatable RTM thing, Paul said:
"how is it, exactly, that we should trust what you write if, a) we can't trust everything on the Internet, and, b) you get so much wrong?"
and
"Why are you, Microsoft, railing against bloggers when you don't even get it right?"
and
"There is so much more wrong here. I have so many questions." followed by the questions.
You have any thoughts on the rest of his arguments?

What I Use

Like many, I was hoping to see a new Lumia flagship before the end of 2014, and while I was pleasantly surprised in some ways by both the Lumia 735 and 830, neither offers the level of performance or best-in-market camera quality I had come to expected from Microsoft/Nokia's high-end devices. So I pulled the trigger on an unlocked Windows Phone flagship that will hopefully take me through at least the first half of this year. Or until Microsoft gets off its low-end fixation and satisfies the needs of its biggest fans....More

It's been a while since the last What I Use, but there haven't been many major changes since late last year: Surface Pro 3 has become my go-to travel companion, I've added a third cellphone line for testing Windows Phone, Android and iPhone side-by-side, and have rotated through some new tablets and other devices. We've also switched from FIOS to Comcast and added to our set-top box collection....More